Being a workaholic is an addiction that steals your life and joy. It is an escape from solving real problems and is rooted in more profound issues. Work addiction prevents you from the identification of the real problem and getting rid of it.
People can see workaholism as an advantage and opportunity for career growth. However, that’s not true. Work addiction prevents a person from achieving success, not only in personal life but also in work. Besides, it can have a deadly and negative impact on their health and other spheres of their life.
Like any other addiction, such as drug or alcohol addictions, you must change the behaviors. Treatment begins from admitting to the problem and development of a detailed strategy on getting rid of the habit.
Before we discuss 15 bad habits of a workaholic, we will give you the first piece of advice: don’t hesitate for a minute; start to learn everything you can about the dangers of being a workaholic and its treatment. We say that because their addiction absorbs workaholics’ minds, and it is a rare occasion when they can even realize that they are in trouble.
Here are 15 habits of workaholics which they need to change as soon as possible:
1. Maintaining an Erratic Sleep Schedule
A workaholic is likely to neglect their sleep. They work more than their work requires, or they find additional occupations for themselves. However, the lack of sleep decreases the performance of an addict and only creates an illusion of productivity.
If you noticed that you have a constant lack of sleep, you should immediately establish a healthy sleep pattern. You strive for 7 to 9 hours of sleep nightly.
You need to forbid yourself from using device screens 1 hour before going to bed. Try to sleep in complete darkness. Don’t allow anything to interrupt your sleep.
2. Improper Nutrition
If you eat fast food on the go, while you are late to somewhere and your head is busy with thoughts about your work, it can end poorly.
In addition to this, a workaholic, probably, doesn’t eat food regularly and in proper time, rather, they eat a lot for one intake. That will reflect on their well-being, through conditions of the liver, stomach, skin, ability to think, and on their weight.
To prevent all those nightmarish consequences, a workaholic must set a meal schedule. It should be no less than 5-6 sessions for food intake, and it should be spread throughout the day evenly.
3. Overworking
Whether the addict works physically, or primarily with their brain, their zeal exhausts them. While a person is young and strong, they are unable to notice their fatigue and therefore do not consider it. Nevertheless, as the years pass, their bodies will give them back the lack of care in the form of pain in bones and muscles, as well as poor performance.
You can avoid this by setting strict restrictions on work duration. According to your new rules, you will work only a certain amount of hours a day.
4. Neglected Appearance
A person that is enslaved by their work routine often doesn’t consider the way they look to the extent that they should. They wear old clothes, and their hairstyles betray their self indifference. Workaholics may want to change only in the case that it becomes an obstacle for completing their working tasks.
This habit can harm a person’s socializing. They should put improving their appearance as one of the steps in the list of things to change to stop being a workaholic.
5. Lack of Socializing
Without enough social interaction, you can fall into depression, and your life will seem meaningless. If you’re in this situation, immediately try to acquire friends or acquaintances.
To have productive and enjoyable relations with people, you need to look for soul-mate people: the ones that share the same interests in life. Your world vision has to be approximately similar.
6. Neglecting Health
Workaholics see themselves as insignificant people. They often think that it’s not a big deal if they die before getting old. They may also think that as soon as they will achieve such heights, that at least they will be able to care about their body.
The truth is that their ability to work effectively will decrease with that attitude. Start to do something to fix it: visit a therapist for a consultation. Or, at least conduct research to find advice on how to maintain your health.
7. They Don’t Reflect on Their Feelings
One of our crucial needs is to reflect on our feelings and understand them. Our psyche speaks with us and can tell us if there is something wrong in our life. It may be that you need to change something or to forgive someone, or, vice versa, to stop relations with someone for your own good.
When you are not sparing any time to sort out your feelings, you may make incorrigible errors in important decisions. Include in your schedule time during which you will spend at least 20 minutes reflecting on your inner self.
8. Neglecting Exercise or Physical Fitness
It is likely that work addicts are not doing enough to stay fit. This is especially true for those who work in the office. However, even if you are working hard as a loader in a grocery store, it doesn’t mean that all groups of your muscles are all right. Also, we shouldn’t forget about cardio exercise and other workouts in which you will develop those muscles that are not exercised while you are lifting boxes.
9. Alcohol, Drugs and Nicotine Addiction
When overloading themselves, people don’t understand that they are not robots by nature. People can’t live without relaxation and relief forever. In that manner, they begin to relax and enjoy in an unnatural way.
To stop using substances it is preferable to seek help with a specialist.
10. Neglecting Intellectual Development
When a person is devoting all their time to one function, they have no time to explore the world, to discover new ideas, or to become more versatile. Soon it will become more noticeable. They think that nothing interests them and that nothing attracts them, except for their work.
They will be deeply frustrated when their profession will not provide them enough novelty. To prevent this, start to read books 30 minutes a day minimum.
11. They Forget To Have Fun
One of our bodily needs is to spend time at ease, forgetting about our problems and laughing. You will be surprised when you see what relief and mood improvement it will give you when you will practice spending time in the atmosphere of fun and jokes, from time to time.
Thus, this strict behavior is not better than other bad habits. Your career is supposed to bring some higher satisfaction to you and others, without sacrificing your comfort. However, if you are a workaholic, you are just mocking yourself.
12. They Forget to Dream
Whey is it important to dream about the future, to imagine different variations of it, and to build plans? It may happen that you don’t really like what you currently do. By imagining yourself growing in the future, you may develop absolutely different plans of action for the following years.
13. Multitasking
While a person tries to complete as many tasks as possible, the quality may suffer. It is not good for your memory either. Don’t fall into a fuss, take only the number of projects that you can complete with quality.
To suppress this bad habit, write your priorities in a journal: what are you are going to do today in the first place, and what will you do after completing the most important tasks.
14. They Do Everything by Themselves
There are numerous benefits in a skill to work in a team. If it is in your family, it gives development to your children and prepares them for mature life. It also strengthens relationships in the family.
When you do everything by yourself, you don’t give your relatives a chance to help you. Additionally, you teach your children to be egotistical.
15. They Accept All Propositions
Something in the head of work addicts makes them see themselves as obligated always to say “yes.” It can even be harmful to their career in various ways. If you say “yes” to one thing, you are going to say “no” to another. That means that you can miss more profitable projects. When you always say “yes”, people will not evaluate you fairly.
Final Thoughts on Avoiding the Bad Habits of a Workaholic
To get rid of an addiction is a difficult task. An addict should want to be successful in recovery. However, don’t hesitate; stop wasting your energy in vain. There are so many things that you can achieve if you will free yourself from that abnormality.
Your loved ones have to support you in these attempts. You should find a good therapist to instruct you in more detail.
If it is not you, but your loved one, who needs help, you have to be patient. They can become irritated when you are trying to bring them back to real life. Your close one escaped the real world for a reason. However, if you manage to help them, they will be grateful to you in the future.
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